Ingham Co. Clerk Mike Bryanton has dealt with a flood of recall attempts this year. Under Michigan law, an elected official can be recalled for just about any reason.

"Just in Ingham County alone, we've had 27 separate recall petitions filed," said Bryanton. "Not to say some of these recalls aren't serious in nature but all too often they border on frivolous."

Although the vast majority of recall attempts don't make it to the ballot, one not only made it to a vote but also got voter approval this past election. Last Tuesday, Rep. Paul Scott (R - Grand Blanc) was the first state lawmaker recalled since 1983.

Governor Rick Snyder agrees that the recall tool is being misused.

"It's gotten out of control, in all directions, in terms of all of those recall efforts, all of those petitions," said Governor Snyder. "So I encourage the legislature to look at different ideas that might be improvements.

Right now there are two state bills that would restrict the reasons an elected official can be recalled.

HJR GG would allow a recall only if an official had been convicted of a crime or misused public assets.

Senate Bill 629 requires the reasons for a recall to be both clear and accurate. Right now a reason simply has to be clear to the average voter and provably true or false, but it doesn't have to be true in and of itself.

And SB 629 goes even farther, preventing officials serving terms longer than 2 years from being recalled in their first or last year and allowing a recall only when there's "no political recourse" for an officials' action or the elected body can't take some action of its own to overturn a decision.

But because many of those elected bodies have mechanisms of their own to throw a member out for committing a crime, Lansing City Clerk Chris Swope sees a problem.

"It really creates a situation where there's no valid reasons to recall somebody under the law and I think that goes too far," said Swope.

And some, like Everett teacher Jim Allen, say not liking the way someone votes is a perfectly good reason for a recall anyway.

"Well you're elected to represent the constituents in your district and if your constituents in your district say you're not representing us, you should have the right to recall them," said Allen.